If you wind up learning anything from us here at UnBeige, please let it be this warning: do not, under any circumstances, build a time machine and go back in time to either the late-60s or early-70s to design an album cover for a famous musician or band and then come back to the present, broke because you spent all your money on building a time machine and request that said musician or band to give you your image back. Such has famously happened to Peter Blake of course (minus the time machine bit) with his iconic “Sgt. Peppers” album cover for The Beatles, which he was originally paid somewhere around $200 for and has fought, unsuccessfully, to win the copyright from. Now the same is going on with Elton John‘s 1973 album, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.” The Daily Mailreports that the artist behind its cover, Ian Beck, has requested the original piece back, believing that the musician held on to it after Beck was paid £430 for it. The law apparently won’t be on the artist’s side, as it was stipulated at the time that “in 1973 whoever commissioned it owned it.” Though that changed two years later, it appears that Beck is hoping to appeal to Elton John’s generosity. Though getting past his representatives will be something of a hurdle. Here’s what they told the Daily Mail:

A spokesman for the singer says: “I have no idea whether Elton has it, but presumably if he does, he paid for it so it is his; £430 was a hell of a lot of money back then. A bit weird, isn’t it, to ask for something back 38 years later?”